Never more
by Naomi Iori
Summary: Yosuke has known Souji for a while, he doesn't know what to think of the male who gives him butterflies. After finally realizing his feelings he has to come in terms with helping Souji with a problem completely out of control-what was it? Pheromone curse?


_Never more _

"It'll be a new experience!" His mother tried to comfort. His father, stern as he was, nodded in agreement.

"She's right, it's about time you've seen some of your relatives." The atmosphere was quiet, awkward, and stressed. It's bad enough he didn't want to talk about it.

"…Can't you just…extend the date? Please?" Souji begged one last time to his 'understanding' parents.

"Souji can't you be more open about this?! We HAVE to take this job overseas, and your uncle was kind enough to take you into his home in our absences even though he's a widower police officer with a child of his own, don't be a bother to them!" retaliated his mother.

* * *

_Don't be a bother…_ Souji didn't know if he was able to do something too selfish but he wouldn't try. He stopped, looking out the window of the solemn train he was on, stopped reflecting on the past. There was no good to come in thinking about a place he was no longer living in. Inaba was going to be his home from now 'til spring. He had obviously let time pass him by quite carelessly; the conductor's voice was already announcing the closing in on Inaba.

When the train had stopped at the station, he had carefully grabbed his luggage while taking his time coming off. One small step outside of the train would make things so much more official. He only looked around briefly before he saw who was supposedly his uncle. "Oh! There you are. I'm Ryoutaro Doujima the one who's going to take care of you" he spoke up. "Welcome to Inaba."

Souji couldn't help but to notice the petite child cowering behind him, her cute demeanor clashing well with his gruff appearance. She had to be his child.

"You look more handsome than in the pictures," His uncle laughed before looking at his daughter. "What's wrong Nanako? Don't you want to say hello to your cousin?" The shy girl has walked from behind her father and spoke a soft forced hello before going back to his side. "Heh she's just a bit shy- OW. Heh," he had unsuccessfully tried to laugh off the hit Nanako had just given him in retort to the statement.

Souji had exchanged a few words with him before getting into the car. Before he could reach his new home they had to stop at the gas station for numerous reasons. He didn't know why but he found himself having a conversation with the gas attendant as soon as he got out the car. "Oh, you're a city bird aren't you?" That was a new one. "I think things can kinda get boring here, but you should be fine if you have some good friends and maybe get a part time job."

"Not at all, I think the countryside is quiet alright, the air is fresher," Souji admitted.

The attendant seemed to humor this statement seeing how they were at a gas station. "Would it be weird to say 'Welcome to Inaba!'?" he asked while extended his hand, which Souji shook in response. "Not at all."

As soon as the attendant went back his task, Souji had felt a bit…. different. It was a hard feeling to describe, butterflies maybe? But why? "Are you ok?" asked Nanako's voice out of nowhere, her face filled with concern. _Don't be a bother._

"Y-yeah, I'm fine don't worry" Souji said with a warm smile, voice wavering. It was probably something a bit of rest could heal….

Upon arriving at the Doujima household and getting everything settled in, Doujima had laid out all of the food in the living room table for the 'special' occasion. He, Souji, and Nanako all took a big gulp out of their drinks in some weird toast kind of way. Doujima had taken the liberty to officially welcome Souji (again), making somewhat small talk. Everything seemed normal to Souji until Doujima's cellphone rang and he had to stand up to answer it.

The conversation he had on the other line was fast, must have been important. As soon as he had hung up he had turned to Souji and Nanako and dismissed himself with a "Sorry, I have somewhere to be, you guys go on and eat without me!" He had instructed Nanako to help Souji around and walked out, but not before asking about the laundry.

Souji couldn't help but to notice the lonely face Nanako was portraying due to the incident, made him think that maybe he and his cousin weren't so different. Like any normal child Nanako had turned on the TV, which was automatically on some weather update. Nothing Nanako seemed interested in. _This silence is awkward…I guess I should try to strike a conversation…._ "So, what does your dad do?" he found himself asking even though he knew the answer. "He's a detective." came the small reply. Her attention was quickly diverted back to the TV that now displayed a news report.

Souji had been able to get the point of it; apparently an important man was caught having an affair with a female reporter, even though his wife was an enka sensation. The reporter had been up under fire and now away from public's eye. _I don't see what the hassle is_ Souji found himself thinking. _People don't cheat for the fun of it, there are reasons. He was probably feeling lonely, and if that's the case then it can't be helped…wait, what am I thinking!?_

"This is boring."

Nanako had brought upon herself to decide and automatically changed to a channel to a commercial. It was playing some kind of jingle Souji had never heard before; as if things hadn't gotten any weirder, Nanako had spoken up shocking Souji slightly. "Every day's great at your JU-NES~!"

Apparently she was singing along. She then had turned her head to notice Souji staring at her. "Aren't you going to eat?" she asked naively. Souji decided to pick up the pace with the food.

After dinner he had went upstairs to his room, which was pretty much filled with boxes that had yet to be opened and placed. He was feeling tired and exceptionally unmotivated for the school day to come. There was absolutely nothing to look forward to. He made his way through all of the boxes while walking on the plush rug to reach his blue futon. The gas station incident still hadn't left his mind, so sleep was the thing he definitely needed. He situated himself in his futon once he had gotten it all unfolded and set up.

_…Why is it so foggy?_ Souji didn't get it. Wasn't he in his room in his futon? He had raised his head to find himself in some fog-infested world on nothing but a singular odd red path. What the hell was going on? If this was a dream it was pretty crackish. He had stood up and looked around, if this was a dream he had no choice but to follow it through until he woke up. He began to follow the path that he could barely make out enough as it is.

The fog was starting to get to his head, as if it was real.

_Dreams shouldn't feel like this. _

"If it's the truth you desire" stated a voice ahead bringing Souji out of his thoughts. "Come, and find me."

_That's just asking for trouble…what truth? Truth to what?_

Souji's curiosity had gotten the better of him and he found himself heading towards the voice, almost hypnotized, until he had reached the dead end. There was a portal Souji didn't know he could trust or not. He didn't want to go in but it was as if he had no choice in the matter, he was slowly being engulfed in light.

"So…you are the one pursing me," said a blurry silhouette far in front of him. _What?_ Souji looked at his hand to see, or could be seen in the god forsaken fog, that he was equipped with a sword. He had often dreamed of having a sword of his own but what good would it do him? Get him arrested for having one in plain sight? There was no way he could get his hands on a real one anyways. "Hm…" said the figure again. "Try all you'd like."

What did that mean? Did this person actually want Souji to hurt them? His body had a mind of its own and rushing towards the person, swinging his katana with great force and agility. It didn't even matter though, as it apparently missed. "Seems like you can see a little despite the fog." He was about to attack again until the fog had completely covered his vision of the person. Despite continuing his antics, he had felt stupid attacking thin air, where the hell was the person?

"Will we meet again? At a place other than here? ...I really look forward to it…." The person sounded like some lover to Souji. Before he could reply he felt his head becoming woozy again, he was losing consciousness.

* * *

"Breakfast is ready!" was the first thing Souji heard when he had opened his eyes. It was already morning and he felt tired and cranky. Instead of getting some quiet peaceful slumber, he had gotten a weird nightmare that felt like it was depriving him of sleep. He had to admit it wasn't easy falling asleep in his room. It's not like his futon was uncomfortable or his room wasn't dark enough but he had somewhat missed the sounds of the wind and cars at night. Inaba was just too quiet….

Since he slept in his uniform, (totally not on purpose, his nightclothes were in one of the boxes) he had no need to get changed. Just only to do the other essentials before coming downstairs to eat with Nanako. He was surprised to see the bountiful breakfast meal on the kitchen table. "Did you make this by yourself?" he asked Nanako when she had come by to put another plate of food on the table. "Uh huh. Good morning." He had taken a seat with her.

"You're starting school today and my school is on the way so…we should walk together." She stated quite cheerfully. Souji agreed while taking a bite out of his toast.

She had led the way to him, and like his mood, the weather was bitter. It was raining, so they had taken umbrellas with them. Nanako had stopped at one point and pointed ahead. "Your schools this way and mines is back this way so I'll see you later. Bye!"

She had run off to the other direction leaving Souji to fend for himself. He was fine though.

Reaching the school zone he had found other students with the same uniform as him walking. Most of them into groups or couples, and only one weirdo bicycling on a day like this.

"W-wo-wooah!" cried a boy his age, riding on a yellow bike while holding an umbrella. He had wavered past Souji and ended up crashing into a nearby pole. Souji had to walk towards the scene to get a better look. The student did nothing but writhe in pain as his bike was on the ground along with his umbrella. _Well, that's what he gets… _Souji decided to leave the student be.

* * *

_My body is aching everywhere_, Yosuke thought, agitated. What was wrong with wanting to get to school in a more convenient way? He was doing somewhat fine when he left his house on bike, so why a pole out of all things?

Hearing the students' constant bickering and bitching about the teacher was getting seriously old. They were going to have the asshole for the rest of the year anyways may as well get used to it. They were talking about something else Yosuke didn't care for also.

"Huh…a transfer student from the city, just like you huh Yosuke?" said a familiar voice he recognized as Chie's. She had just noticed his form splayed on top of his desk carelessly. "Wow, you look dead today."

"Yeah um, I don't want to talk about it" He answered hoping she would get the hint, then again anybody would the way his voice sounded, strained as it was.

"What's with him?"

"Who knows?" Yukiko, Chie's best friend who sat in the desk infront of her, answered. _Nice subtlety Chie…not!_

When Morooka had came through the door, grunting, all of the students that were standing quickly made their way to their seats not wanting to face his wrath so early in the morning. If Yosuke had looked up, he would have noticed the new student everyone was talking about. "I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward!" he announced as if anybody cared to be reminded. Then as expected he went on an all out rant about hormones or heat or something like that, Yosuke had decided.

He had closed his eyes for some comfort in his mind, blocking out everything else. He didn't care if he had missed anything. The only time his eyes had opened was when he had felt a presence in the desk infront of him, the new student no doubt.

It was almost the end of class and Morooka's lecture was almost over. He claimed it wasn't a normal lecture but to Yosuke and probably the rest of the entire class it all sounded the same. Once there was the indication that school had ended Morooka was making his way to the door until a certain announcement held him back. The weird announcement called for a short staff meeting and for all students to stay in their classes until notified else wise. It didn't matter if he had to stay in class or not, eventually he was going to have to confront Chie about her DVD. The same DVD that he had accidentally broken, let's just say it was something he was not looking forward to.

Students were talking about the so called incident that was holding them back from leaving class as if they had nothing better to do, unlike Yosuke who was practically walking towards his own deathbed; deathbed as in Chie who talking to the new student. It was only after he had got up that the announcement to head straight home was issued.

"Um Chie…This was really awesome…. like the way they moved and stuff…" Yosuke had lied. It was better to get this over with then have the deal with Chie's wrath times ten afterwards.

"Please have mercy until I get my next paycheck!" with that Yosuke handed her the DVD and made a run for it. "What did you do to my DVD!?" he heard her yell and before he knew it he was again for the 2nd time that day writhing in pain thanks to Chie's manly kicks in a place he'd rather not think about. To think he was almost at the door too.

He heard the footsteps of Yukiko and the new student as Chie had opened her DVD case and then sharply gasped.

"What the-!? I can't believe this! What did you do? It's completely cracked!! My "Trail of the Dragon"!" she wailed.

"I-I think mines is cracked too, critical hit to the nads…"

"Shut up!" Chie had roared. "A-are you alright?" came a voice. It was Yukiko's undoubtedly. "Y-Yukiko? You're worried about me?" Yosuke was quite surprised.

"He 's FINE Yukiko, c'mon, let's go home." The last thing Yosuke had heard were all three of them walking out the door. _Argh…ugh…such a violent girl…_

Yosuke for one was happy to go home finally after a crap day at school. He had convinced himself to put on a happy face until he was able to go to the comforts of his own room just drowning out everything with music and his guitar. He unlocked his bicycle and led it all the way to the front gate; in clear vision was a scene he would only guess as Yukiko rejecting another poor soul taken in by her charm. "Yo Yukiko-chan, reject another victim again?" The look on her face was nothing but pure shock.

"W-wha?"

"Man does that suck; I remember when you did me the same way last year!"

"I-I did no such thing!" She was so painfully naïve sometimes you had to wonder if she'd ever get a real boyfriend.

"Well see ya!"

Satisfied with Chie not after his blood he had cycled on his merry way leaving Chie's group behind.

* * *

_Inaba's way too quiet. The mornings are quiet, the nighttimes are quiet, even a dog fight would be quiet in this place, this place is JUST-TOO-DAMN-_

Before Souji could finish his thought, or ramble, in the quiet morning while walking to school a flash of yellow had passed him by and had crashed. Directly into a trash can.

_Scratch that; please don't make this the same weirdo from yesterday. _Curiously Souji had made his way to the rolling trash can with legs, while others had just walked past it like it was nothing, and heard a meek "S-someone…"

Deciding to help the person out, Souji had walked over to the end of the trashcan and had slowly pulled on it, eventually getting the person out. To his dread, it was indeed the boy from yesterday. The same boy who had crashed into the pole, the same one who had gotten kicked in the crotch over a DVD. The boy had gotten up dusted himself off (like that would help any) and had picked up his bicycle while facing Souji.

"Whew, you saved me!"

_Are you a masochist?! _

"Thanks um... Oh, right! You're that new transfer student Seta Souji! I'm Yosuke Hanamura! Nice to meet ya!"

"Is your bike ok?"

"W-what!? I get injured and your asking if my bike's okay?!"

Souji couldn't help but to feel the smile on his face widen a bit.

"Anyways, it's fine I think, just a bit creaky…"

Souji wasn't expecting what was to come next.

"So, have you heard of the Midnight Channel?"

_That thing again…_ Souji thought recalling what Chie had said the other day. Yosuke had gone on talking about the reporter lady being hanging from an antenna until a realization hit him.

"Oh crap! We're late for class! You wanna ride?" Yosuke had offered. "It's a little squeaky but it should be fine" he said with automatic reassurance. Souji couldn't help but humor the idea in his mind.

"_Mommy?" _

"_Yes, Souji, dear?" _

"_Why do you and daddy fight?"_

_He had heard a slight chuckle with a faint smile as he was lifted up from his spot and cuddled in his mothers lap. _

"_It's hard to explain, Souji, but sometimes when you love someone, you fight with them." _

"_That doesn't make sense at all." _

"_It doesn't," was his mother's slight agreement. _

"_But the fact that me and your father are able to solve our issues when fighting and return to normal but only stronger, means something" He had cocked his head slightly, curious to what she had meant._

"_I believe it means true love."_

"So, you getting used to this place?" the voice asked behind him, quickly bringing him out of his nostalgia. Souji turned his head slightly for his eyes to meet Yosuke. "Yeah" Souji admitted.

"Wow, that was fast." Souji didn't expect Yosuke to understand even though he was in the same position. When it comes down to it if you're someone like Souji, getting used to a place wasn't a question of choice, it was a must.

"There isn't much to do here compared to the big city, but there is that certain… something you can't get anywhere else." Yosuke had decided for himself. "The air's clean, the food's great… oh, you know about the local delicacy? Grilled steak! As if that's anything special, though I know I place where you can get it cheap…" it sounded as if he was bringing up an offer. "Wanna come? You helped me out this morning, so it's on me."

"Um, what about me huh? No apologies? At all?"

Anybody would have noticed Yosuke's cringe as the owner of the voice stepped towards them, "My 'Trial of the Dragon'" Chie reminded.

"You always come around when I talk about food," Souji heard Yosuke mutter.

* * *

"Next, more details in the developing story on the incident fogging over Inaba," announced the TV when Dojima had came home that night and requested the news to be turned on. "Announcer Mayumi Yamano's dead body was found hanging above a house in this isolated rural town." It continued. "It is confirmed that Ms. Yamano had been involved in an affair with Taro Namatame, husband of enka singer Misuzu Hiragi." The report went into the details it displayed the night before.

_I wouldn't be surprised if the incident had something to do with the affair. Love makes people do amazingly crazy things._ Souji concluded to himself. "The police plan to investigate this relationship and question any personnel involved with them, In addition we now bring you an exclusive interview with the local student who found Ms. Yamano's body." Souji caught Dojima sighing. "An interview with the kid? Where the hell did they find her?"

He turned his attention back to the TV when the interview began. "What went through your mind when you saw it? Could you tell she was dead- did you see her face?" The camera turned to an awkward teenage schoolgirl who seemed unsure of herself and her interview.

_Wait a second…_ Souji thought to himself as he stared at the TV intently. It was the girl from earlier on in the day. When Yosuke had treated Souji, (and Chie who jumped on the bandwagon) he was personally introduced to Yosuke's upperclassman friend Saki.

The girl on the TV was definitely her. The reporter's enthusiasm was starting to make Souji sick to his stomach. He tuned out the rest of the interview until the dreaded Junes commercial came on, on cue Nanako sang along with the female voice. "Hey Dad, can we go to Junes together sometime?" she asked cheerfully until there was no reply back. "No?"

A loud snoring sound followed, from Dojima no doubt. "Geez…" Nanako muttered.

The sound of rain was always soothing to Souji. He knew it rained more in the countryside than in the city for some odd reason, but he didn't mind. He was just in his darkened room sitting on his couch, just listening to the rain to pass the time. Thoughts ran through his head courtesy of it.

"_Your soul mate appears if you look into a TV on a rainy night."_ Chie's voice rang in his head.

It was midnight, and it was raining but that didn't mean he wanted to **try** out the rumor. _Soulmate…get real…_ Who was childish enough to believe a TV could tell you whom you'd spend the rest of your days with.

"_It's as if you care, it's as if you are afraid."_ Shut up.

What the hell was that voice in the back of his mind? Ever since he had arrived to the country side Souji had nothing but conflicting feelings inside of him. It was getting troublesome. He decided to deal with the problem head on as he got up and treaded slowly to his television.

Silence. Souji turned around. _No._

He stopped in his tracks and turned his head as soon as he noticed a glow. The TV automatically turned on, showing disturbing static images of a woman in pain, moving as if almost dancing a dance of torture. Lightning flashed outside. His headache was growing and so was a voice. _"I am thou, thou art I…"_ Shut up! _"Thou art the one…" _

The whole situation was too overwhelming for Souji, and he stumbled backwards clutching his forehead in confusion and pain. _"Open…Door."_ More thunder. The ticking of the clock.

How the hell did it end up this way? He was on the floor on his knees, at a loss. He gained the strength to lift himself up and walk carefully to the television. His finger on the screen met with ripples of vibration, startling him. _What's going on!?_

Normally logic would come to Souji before curiosity, but it seemed to go out the window along with the sanity of everything before him. Once again he set his hand on the screen only to have it engulfed.

"W-wha-agh!"

The more he tugged the more he was getting sucked in! His whole damn head was in already!

He was more concentrated on getting out then looking at what was infront of him oddly enough. One forceful push and he was sent flying smack into his table.

Souji groaned, holding his head in pain. _Why me?_

The TV turned off as Souji heard a familiar voice…Nanako. "Are you ok?" _I don't think so- _

_Don't be a bother._

"I'm okay," was the calm reply he sent to the younger one. "Okay… Well, goodnight" was the hesitant reply back. Souji waited until he heard the sound of footsteps leaving his door. _What was that…? Please don't tell me I was the only one who went through that hell! _

He sat there rubbing his head lost in thought until it was time for him to get some rest.

* * *

This story is dedicated to my good friend molly. As long as she's alive I'm going to keep writing this till the end of it. We're always writing stories for each other so this one is the only one I've actually ever shown publicly. And Naruto fans don't worry I'm still doing my other stories. I'm just a lazy person


End file.
